


A Secret Shared

by stellatundra



Category: The Quick - Lauren Owen
Genre: Gen, Misses Clause Challenge, Yuletide, Yuletide 2015, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-16
Updated: 2015-11-16
Packaged: 2018-05-01 23:18:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5224808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellatundra/pseuds/stellatundra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>James in love, Charlotte could scarcely imagine it. And yet it would explain much about his distance from her before his... change. </i>
</p><p>Emily Richter has always known more than she lets on. She shares some of her secrets with Charlotte, giving her something more of her brother to hold on to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Secret Shared

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pendrecarc](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pendrecarc/gifts).



_My dear Miss Norbury,_

_I beg that you will excuse the familiarity of my address -- I feel as though I know you so well already. If not inconvenient I would like to ask your leave to call upon you on Wednesday morning, while I am in the country. There is a matter which I would very much like to discuss with you, concerning your poor dear brother._

_Yours etc._

_Mrs Emily Hyssops_

 

Emily Hyssops did not look at all as Charlotte had imagined from her note. She was more serious and more elegant, dressed in an emerald silk coat with a black fringe and an elaborate feathered hat which made Charlotte feel half-ashamed of her own old cotton tea gown. She smoothed her skirts nervously before offering her hand to her visitor.

“My dear Miss Norbury,” she greeted her, every bit as effusive as her missive had been, “I am so happy to meet you at last.”

“Pleased to make your acquaintance, Mrs Hyssops. Do sit down. Tea?”

“Thank you. And you must call me Emily, you know.”

Charlotte didn’t answer, instead pouring two cups of strong tea with milk. Emily took a sip of tea, but didn’t volunteer any more information about the purpose of her visit. 

“You said in your note that you had something to tell me,” Charlotte prompted. “About James.”

“Yes.” Emily hesitated. “But first, I need to tell you something about myself. It’s a lonely thing, you know, having a secret.” She gave Charlotte a direct look, making her feel quite transparent. 

“Yes,” Charlotte felt compelled to answer. “I know something of that.”

“I know you do. I know... all sorts of things. I don’t know how, or why. Sometimes it’s nothing more than a fleeting impression - when somebody is in danger, or if they are about to have happy news. Sometimes its more. People’s pasts, futures, dreams and secrets”

“But that’s --”

“Impossible?” Emily arched an eyebrow. “But then, so are vampires, aren’t they, Miss Norbury?”

Charlotte shivered at hearing the word spoken aloud in such a calm fashion over tea. She had to acknowledge that if men could live far beyond their natural span, drinking the blood of others, infected with a blood hunger that saw them turn on their own families, then other strange things too could easily be true. 

“When I was eight years old I suddenly knew that Cook would die. Nobody believed me, of course, the fanciful imaginations of an over-indulged child. But she died, the very next day. After that the maids looked at me suspiciously for a long time, and I knew it was not something most people would understand.” Emily scrutinised her again. “But then you’re not ‘most people’, are you Miss Norbury? Not any more.”

Charlotte took a sip of tea, taking courage as she composed her thoughts.

“Why have you come?”

“Because I know you will always wonder. About James. All the things he never had a chance to share with you. And I know he would have wanted you to know. It makes it more real, somehow, knowing that somebody will remember.”

“You and he were lovers,” Charlotte guessed. James in love, Charlotte could scarcely imagine it. And yet it would explain much about his distance from her before his... change. A secret love affair, to be concealed at all costs. A married woman no less! 

“No.” Emily gave her a wry smile. “He was in love, though. Very much. They’d planned to go away together, the night that... Well. They’d planned to go away.”

That explained the packed up things in James’s rooms. To go away, though, and not to marry? And without telling a single soul. Charlotte felt more than ever as though she’d never really known her brother at all. 

“And Christopher loved him,” Emily went on earnestly, leaning closer towards her. “You should know that he was loved, Charlotte.”

Charlotte sat back in her chair.

“He was always loved,” she said quietly, remembering James now not as a pale ghoul, or even as the young man who’d left for London, but as the small boy who had roamed the halls with her, daring one another to scare themselves silly. How innocent they’d been. 

“You’re not shocked?”

Charlotte shook her head. 

“Somehow, I don’t believe I shall be shocked at anything ever again,” she said. “Please, tell me everything.”

So Emily shared everything, from her first, somewhat embarrassing meeting with James when he’d caught her and Christopher in the library, and the impression she’d had even then of his attraction to Christopher, to the way James had shone with his love for Christopher that night at the ball, despite the shadow of an unhappy future which seemed to cling to him. She told Charlotte about the play James had been writing, how proud he’d been to share it, and about their final meeting just before Christopher’s funeral, and the images she’d glimpsed then of some distant future, of cities beyond imagination. 

It was a precious gift, Charlotte realised. She might never find a cure, might never have her brother restored to her as he had been, but through Emily’s stories she felt closer to him, felt as though she had more of him to hold on to in her thoughts. She thought about what Emily had said about Christopher, and realised that this was her way of keeping her friend alive, too, by sharing this secret.

“Thank you,” Charlotte said at last. “I’m glad you told me.”

“Then I am glad to have come,” Emily said, rising from her chair. “I’d have liked us to be friends, but I doubt we’ll meet again.”

Charlotte looked at her, wondering just how much she knew of her own fate. 

“Good day, Mrs Hyssops. Emily. Thank you for coming.” She held out her hand to shake Emily’s, but Emily hesitated.

“Aren’t you curious?” Emily asked. “About your future? I’ve only shared my secret with a handful of people, but you are the first one who hasn’t asked me.”

Charlotte glanced down at Emily’s gloves, noticed her pulling at a loose thread around the frill. It was tempting, of course it was. What would her life be, from now on, roaming around Europe in search of a cure for James? Soon, when he was recovered, she would have to say goodbye to Howland. Her life was certainly not likely to be a long or a happy one, but if that was the case, she would rather not know in advance. And if by some miraculous chance it were to hold happy surprises, why then she’d rather like to save them up for the future. 

“No,” she said, looking up and meeting Emily’s gaze frankly. “No, I think I’d rather take each day as it comes.”


End file.
